Elevating Black Thinking

The power brokers of Trenton’s political establishment—the syndicate that gave us 20 years of Douglas H. Palmer, but no durable solutions to the city’s long-simmering socioeconomic decline—has normalized the abnormal.

The result: African American Trentonians—the powerful and neglected voting block that comprises more than 50 percent of the city’s population—have no idea how to select and appraise candidates for mayor. What’s more, we don’t appear to understand the gravity of Trenton’s economic crisis or the superhuman leadership and myriad coalitions needed to reorganize city government and upend an expensive, underperforming Trenton Public School District. We need to do both.

We seem unable to see beneath the surface of the individual.  We are so easily seduced, even hoodwinked, by a certain species of African American politician—the homegrown, self-anointed, self-inflated, counterfeit candidates who arrive at our front doors, our cabarets, our church services with a worn-out lexicon of campaign rhetoric. They claim to have a “vision” or a “secret plan” to “change the direction” of the city and establish “a new paradigm.”

We do not ask the hard questions or demand better answers. We give these so-called leaders, who covet power, the brilliant veneer and adoration that come with being mayor, our trust. Emotionally and completely, we buy into their phony promises: “Trenton needs new leadership” and “let’s make Trenton an epic center.” Once these ciphers capture our support, our vote and our limited funds—and then the office—they quickly forget who they are working for.

More than two years ago, Tony F. Mack, smooth on his feet, replete with questionable relationships, rubber checks to pay campaign workers and a boatload of personal debt, ascended from a nebulous public policy record to Trenton city government’s highest office. Mr. Mack did this with no plan to govern, with a private disdain for good government and a hatred for the Trenton Police Department. He has since starved the Trenton PD of the necessary resources to respond to a wave of shootings, robberies, car thefts and burglaries.

He became Trenton’s first black mayor, according to the “dis our hood” crowd who worked the streets to help get him elected. This is the same faction of Trenton’s black community that fought the effort to recall Mr. Mack from office last year. As ridiculous as it sounds, there are a great many black Trentonians who believe that Mr. Palmer, who is light-skinned, wasn’t black or black enough. Therein lies the need to elevate black thinking.

These racially immature people whose repugnance for anyone white running for mayor since Carmen Armenti was jettisoned from the office in 1990, enabled a woefully unqualified Mr. Mack to defeat Manny Segura, a Latino from the Dominican Republic, in the 2010 runoff election. Segura has since dismantled his relevance, particularly to Latinos in Trenton, receding into the abyss by exiling himself to Perth Amboy.

Several weeks ago when I reached Mr. Segura by telephone, he was frustrated by Trenton’s inability to see past the color of a candidate’s skin. He also asserted that Trenton had lost out on $150 million in private investment because voters failed to elect him. Although I paid little attention to the 2010 mayoral race, I do not recall reading any news stories about Mr. Segura’s plan to attract that level of investment to the city. I found this part of the conversation troubling because I simply did not believe him.

What confounds me is that despite all of the progress and contributions African Americans have made to the American experience, here in Trenton, the thinking among black voters has not evolved. We won’t consider a candidate who does not resemble us—including a woman, black or otherwise.

Former Trenton deputy city clerk Cordelia Staton, who is black, and North Ward Councilwoman Marge Caldwell-Wilson, who is white, are two women leaders with strong mayor potential. Unfortunately, misogyny is another defect in Mr. Mack’s government. Ms. Staton, who is a former city councilwoman, was fired in an undignified and cowardly way, during her lunch hour. Ms. Caldwell-Wilson, a highly effective council member, has had some unpleasant interactions with Mayor Mack.

In July, when a platoon of FBI agents wielding search warrants raided Mr. Mack’s home, and those of his surrogates, including City Hall, as part of a federal probe that began shortly after he took office, I talked to numerous black Trentonians who believed that “whitey” was trying to take a “brotha” down. They thought that evidence was quietly being manufactured to expedite Mr. Mack’s removal from office. These dummies, many of who are educated, vote.

Black Trentonians who claim to love the city should be offended by this nonsense. Instead, delusion and denial in this modern age of race and politics, this devolution of black thinking; the attitude that “Doug did it, now it’s our turn to get ours,” continues. And the city is paying dearly. Trenton municipal government is remarkably dysfunctional, corrupt, underfunded, lacking institutional knowledge, ratables and human resources.

Trenton sinks under the weight of its own collective ignorance. It’s time for the black community to take a good look in the mirror and accept responsibility for its role in the city’s spectacular nosedive. Yes, whites have played a key part, too. I get that.

But the time has come for black Trentonians to dispense with the old yardstick for choosing mayoral and council candidates and embrace a new mindset, one that can recognize a cadre of courageous leaders capable of establishing a culture of excellence and execution that will produce the policies to save our city. 

Michael A. Walker is a city activist who blogs about his dissatisfaction with the performance of Trenton city government. His radio show, Slipstream, airs every Thursday at 5 PM on WBCB 1490 AM.